22 comments:

"it will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

Now there's a stupid, stupid liberal statement.

You have it exactly backwards.

Not sure if you are aware of the state of the world and just how many people want to see all americans dead. Have you also heard how terrible our education system is, despite being funded more heavily than ever in history.

How about having a very strong defense and a safe continent in which to live and then educate our kids ourselves. Abolish public education all together and privatize it all. Give me my tax money back and I'll buy an education for my kid you buy one for yours.

Instead of just tossing your money over the fence (to the state and the feds) put your money where your mouth is and make your own individual investment in education.

Nothing wrong with spending tax money to help someone become educated and informed.

The question should be why do people want to see Americans dead? Leadership through power, violence, and fear has always failed or been overthrown, there are no exceptions in history. Friends met from extended travels around the world have been emailing for the past 5/6 years wondering what the US is trying to do in the world by exporting democracy at the point of a gun.

Education wise, the US university/college system is still the strongest in the world, hence all the foreign students who study here and blow the curve for the American students who have been coddled through their education to mediocrity.

no matter how you look at it, our education system is broken, i know this firsthand, as i am a student at one of our "finer" public schools. The school i spend most of my time at is one that is shown off to dignitaries and such because it is one of the top 100 high schools in the nation...i am not talking about roosevelt...my home school, but central academy. a public entity that is privately funded. Most will disagree, but the buliding we are moving in to the Pappajohn Center for Higher Education, was built with private funds, it takes roughly 50% of its annual budget from private funds.

I agree totally with lou about privatizing education...we have shown time and time again, that the private sector is much more efficient, both monetarily, and in day to day operations than the government...and axes the majority of the bureaucracy

Privatization would expand the lower and middle class as an education would not be affordable. The original premise was education as the enabler or equalizer. In the end education privatization would also lower quality of living, escalate class resentment, and heighten polarization beyond even today's levels. From the previous posts it seems that history is being ignored hence it will be repeated . From the past one might consider the uprisings by the un-educated lower class against the ruling classes, odd that this is still occurring in 3rd world countries. This goes to show how jaded we are about education in the US, for example the test we take for assessment, placement, and acceptance from middle school and onto graduate school. There really isn't anything to stop someone from advancing in the US system as there is always a school that will take you. Take a majority of foreign system where if you don't do well on a test at whatever level you are no longer allowed to attend class and end up in the labor force.

For starters, I don't know when wanting more of my tax dollars to go to our education system became stupid and liberal. I'm definitely not stupid, but I'm liberal, well-educated and I proudly believe in educating our kids.

Completely privatizing education probably isn't the answer. Expenses and debt among the lower and middle class have grown at a rapid rate, while the average mans salary hasn't increased to cover such increases.

Now we should pay an extra couple thousand a year for our kids education aside from the near 1/3 of our earnings we pay in taxes and health care. Now that Lou, seems to be backwards to me! I'm glad you are flush and you can send your kids to private schools, but that's not everyone. (they do go to private schools right?)

All we are asking here is 1 billion less to the pentagon. As for the war, maybe if the current administration did their homework and had good intelligence (which they didn’t), our soldiers wouldn’t be continually high and dry for proper equipment.

Now lets think about what we do with the kids who's parents can't afford school. Who supports them when they have no skills, no job and no health care ... that's right - all of us. Just what we need, more ignorant uneducated people. Aside from the great points Bart made, privatizing education would create a bigger drain on our government and ultimately the tax payers.

Our country should be a healthy mix of privatization and government. Too much of one and the other gets out of control. Mixing politicians, the private sector and our tax dollars is a very, very dangerous combination. It’s ripe with corruption, greed and overpayment. Ever heard of Halliburton? Besides, monetary gain should not be the goal of education.

I guess I’m just a little more compassionate to our kids than I am our war efforts. I see one as an investment and the other imperialism.

Garrett

P.S. (all politics aside) My thoughts are with all of our soldiers and families who do their job with honor.

richard, with all due repsect, i can't give your comments very much value, because i know that you're just a big screw-off in school. if you'd listen to your parents, and study more, and spend less time with that girlfriend, and ride your bike when you SAY you will, then you would be able to take advantage of the many great academic opportunities afforded you and your slacker friends. but NOOOOOOOO! you just wanna lay about and have it all handed to you.look at your picture, for prime example: you're lying down.what kind of young person are you, anyway?sit up straight. tuck in that shirt. you must be breaking your parents' hearts. if only you'd apply yourself a little harder.if you spent as much time studying and riding your bike as you scheming and screwing around, well, the world would be a better place, and your folks would be money ahead.

by the way, racing sunday at finchford?or are you still grounded.

rev +2little richard -5lou? get real!

now get back to work, richard. you spend entirely too much time with that computer and those dirty websites: spank me? honestly!

Dear Garrett and sisterhood of liberal cry babies who frequent the Orphanage,

My daughter goes to Waukee High School - (one of the best public schools in the area). A school that I am already paying through the nose and bleeding out of my ears to pay for, thanks to you and your sisterhood of the liberal cry babies, who vote for a new 1% local option sales tax every year to fund the public schools whenever you feel uncomfortable that your kids might turn out to be under-achievers.

If I were not forced to pay for public education, I would send her to the school of my choice where she would get a far superior education at a substantially reduced price.

The way I see it, most liberals are envious that others might have more than they do, yet they are not willing to go out and work hard and work smart to earn their way in the world.

Here's my soapbox statement for the day:

America is NOT the land of the free. We must earn our freedom with our blood, sweat and tears every day. Some of us realize that and then pin our ears back and get busy. Others (liberals) ignore this fact and look to the government to steal what we have worked so hard to earn and spread it around.

Here's the lesson: Stop stealing the fruits of my labor, go out and create your own.

I sympathize with your frustration with the government's ability to wisely spend tax dollars to improve the educational system [contrary to what you may believe, we members of the sisterhood pay our taxes at the same rate as members of the brotherhood (??)].

However, this knee-jerk privatization talk is simply wrong-headed and potentially dangerous. Education is a public good. You and I both have an interest in not only educating our own children, but also in making sure that as many other children are educated as well as possible. If ONLY our own children our educated, in what kind of world will they be living 30 years from now??

I favor public education not because I think I deserve your hard-earned dollars, but because "enlightened" self-interest tells me that when EVERYONE is educated the pie gets bigger, and thus when I work harder I have a shot at a bigger slice of that pie.

I am certain that in a world of private education both your children and mine would receive a marginally better education, but to what end? To try to gather as many crumbs from a failed economy as possible?

[disclaimer -- My children attend a private Catholic school, yet I still am happy to pay my "hard-earned" money to improve the public school system.]

I happily pay my taxes on three rental properties, and hopefully it benefits society. I've never understood why the right always tries to flick the left about taxes. If your a working citizen you pay taxes. If you own a home(s) you pay taxes. Drive a registered insured car you pay taxes. What gives, I pay taxes, try a new argument this tax thing is as adnauseoum as debating road rights and privileges with motorists.

I don't get you guys? I never said that you weren't paying your taxes like good sheep, I said that the liberal agenda is to support an increasing portion of our incomes going to uncle sam, who in turn squanders it on social programs which, in my humble opinion, are a waste of money. If your favor public education, then spend away.

Did you consult Imus for your rebutal? I haven't stolen anything from you and I've already created my own.

I'm anything but a crybaby. I work 50 - 60+ hours a week and make time for an additional 14-18 on the bike. Every week! I do this because I was brought up to go out and get what I want myself!

Be careful who you call a crybaby!

For the record, when I still lived in Iowa, I didn't vote for the 1% sales tax you seem so bent out of shape about. BTW - If you are "already paying through the nose and bleeding out of my ears to pay" an additional 1% on sales tax, by no means am I envious of what you have(or don't have)! : )

I don't remember having a problem paying.

Increase our taxes? NO.

If the government would use our taxes more appropriately, we wouldn't have to increase them at all and schools, roads and healthcare would be better. As for squandering our taxes ... I'm not sure this is the time to blame that on liberals. The last time liberals run the country we had a surplus and last time I checked we had a record deficit ... under a conservative run administration. Just facts.

Also, despite the illegal wiretaping, patriot act and other offenses against our freedom ... America is still the land of the free.

Hopefully, when I'm in town in May you and I can take our frustrations with each other out on the road. I'm talking Tuesday night worlds baby!

Garrett, could you please get some new talking points...you friggin' sound like CNBC, CNN, CBS, Kim West, and all the other liberally based stations that spew their rhetoric; (Halliburton, public school funding, Iraq, Bush lied, surplus in Clintons days, blah, blah, blah). Dude you're a broken record.

All of these social programs that allow us to just "give" to the less fortunate reinforce their laziness to begin with. Anytime you give somebody something for free there is less value attached to it and they tend to neglect it. This has been proven time and time again, subsidized housing in America is a perfect example. Give someone a free house and they bbq in the bathtub and burn the place down. They don't have to work for anything and yet they still get something in return, that is not capitalism…why should these kids pay attention in school and strive for excellence, their parents don’t have to pay for the schooling which cultivates an attitude of complacency? A great example in my life was college. I had to pay 100% of my college expenses. That inspired me to attend class and strive hard to pass. I didn’t skip classes at all because I felt like the only person I was cheating was myself.

The Public School Agenda’s are Terrible:

Another part of the problem is that schools teaching agendas are not pre-requisites for the business world, nor are we teaching accurate accounts of history. Schools are not teaching kids how to:1. Accept rejection or defeat in the world. Review why you lost or didn’t fair so well and strategize on how to overcome this on the next opportunity.2. They don't teach them how to save or invest money for retirement3. They don't teach them how to buy houses4. They don't teach them the option of evolution vs. intelligent design5. They don't teach them about starting their own businesses. Instead they teach kids how to be good "sheeple" to big corporations.6. The Bible is history! (Forget about religion for a second), public schools should be teaching people about proper history and that includes the Bible.

Maybe taking public school funding away isn't the solution to the problem for the reasons mentioned above by everyone. I think Lou was saying that by emphasizing the privatization of schools it will be a catalyst to increase competition in the public schools making them stronger in turn making our children smarter. A simple solution would be to access the dollar value per student in a district, offer a real amount of money credited towards your income taxes at the end of the year if your kids attend a privately funded school. In other words, if you can show receipts for private school payments, then the government owes you $18,000 back on taxes based on a cost of $2000/per month cost liability per student per school month.

Both of you have good points, however, we’ve taken the freedom of choice away from the average person because we are “double taxed” if we send our kids to private schools and still have to pay for public schools. If schools are so important to our country then why are teachers in public schools paid so poorly? Emphasis on privatizing this sector will allow for higher teacher salaries resulting in better quality teachers and smarter students in the long run.

Garrett, If you had nappy hair then I may have borrowed Imus's quote (which, by the way, I found humorous, and no more offensive than Johnny Carson, Carlos Mencia or Chris Rock).

I have to give you the nod when it comes to the current administrations' patriot act. But this is just one of example of my point that the government is BAD, be it liberal or conservative lead.

Kim, one need not to have served in the military to give his blood sweat or tears. My blood is given every month when my ex-wife and her band of government extortionists's immorrally sieze a portiion of my income so that she can buy the best make-up and mall clothes.

What I mean by freedom is that if you can't make your own way in this world and start accepting gifts, either from the government or anyone else, then in some respects you give away your freedom.

Garrett, this dialogue is not personal. You're a good dude. I can't wait for you to get back so we can ride together.

I feel the same way about Kim.

Bart is just a pussy (If only $1 of the tax money I pay in my lifetime benefits someone in this world then it was all worth it.)

That is one of the things that I love about cycling; we can come from different worlds but when we are on a bike, we have everything in common.

Lastly, we may not share the same political obinions, but I think that we are all good intentioned and want the same thigns for our families and this country, we just disagree about how to reach our goals. Face it, you guys are closet socialists who woukld have us all just turn over our worldly possessions to "the man" and be taken care of.

a few years ago whe the des moines public schools were closing elementary schools, there was a massive uproar among the general popluous of the city....fine, but what most people realize, that even though the schools are supposed to be educating youths, much like myself, they have to operate within a budget. The problem was that there is a formula to determine square footage per student necessary in the k-5 area. according to the formula, we should have closed 12 elementary schools, not 5. The school loses approximately 1 million per year per building that it should have closed.....i have no problem with public education....but i do have a problem with the way it is funded/operated

I can't let this one go, being called a pussy due to caring for my fellow man? I won't resort to the name calling level as I know nothing of you Lou. Me personally, I don't give much, I volunteer for the animal shelter a couple of hours a week, the animals appreciate unconditionally.

However, pinning your ears back and digging in, what a joke. I've got a good friend who hates the war and the person we call the president. The gent, a neurosurgeon, gave up a 3/4 of a million dollar practice and signed up for the Army. His reasons were that he couldn't do anything about the idiots in charge or their doctrine but he could help out the solders who had no choice in the matter. He spent a year putting kids back together while in Bagdad's Green zone, if you ended up in his hands you were totally fubar. His opinions of war and this administration have hardened. All for for what Lou, your freedom, my freedom? I'd define that as altruism.

On top of your commentary there seems to be an underlying comparison of yourself to those who have actually fought and died for this country. How dare you sir. My father died flying F105's in combat prior to Vietnam being official, all very quiet and covert, another war in the name of freedom. Gee, I never knew my father because he died protecting your freedom before I had the chance to even remember him. You may be a citizen and have your 1st amendment rights but what have you sacrificed for your fellow man?

Bart, c'mon, don't be so thin skinned. I don't even know you. You can't be all bad if you ride a bike. I'm sure you're not a pussy. But your comment within the context of our dialogue seemed somewhat pollyannaesque.

So if I see you out on a bike ride please don't beat me up, I was just horsing around.

Now on to our next topics:

1. Why is it ok for rappers to call women Ho's but not radio personalities?

2. Why can Carlos Mencia do racial humor but not Don Imus?

3. Why is it ok for a woman to make a joke about my bald head, but not ok for me to make a joke about her fat ass?